


Your Heart Too

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Blood and Water [14]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 12:42:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9182281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard +/ Rodney McKay,Fucked around and got attached to you / Friends can break your heart too, / And I'm always tired but never of you - (Gnash)"Rodney was already attached to John, but fucking around with him just made it worse. Especially since Evan was already there.





	

Rodney was not, by nature, an early riser, but he was the first to wake several hours after he’d had a dizzying threesome with his best friend and his best friend’s lover. Rodney had somehow ended up in the middle, Evan spooned up behind him, arm tucked around his waist, John in front of him, curled toward him.

Evan and John were sleeping heavily enough - having adrenaline-crashed, or maybe that was the post-orgasm deep sleep that Rodney didn’t get nearly enough of - that Rodney was able to wriggle out from between them, find his clothes, dress, and flee. As fast as he could.

There was so much to do, now that Atlantis was back on Earth. They needed to get it back to Pegasus, and that meant rounding up some ZPMs and naquadah generators. They needed to make sure that no one figured out just what had landed in San Francisco Bay. Now was a good time to see about shuffling some personnel, too, since it would be easier to do without the daunting task of transporting people on the _Daedalus_. Service reviews and so many things were in order now that Atlantis had come home.

Rodney could finally get rid of those two useless biochemists. He would see if Dr. Biro was ready to come back. And maybe Dr. Lindsay would be willing to resume her post as head of archaeology. She was a sight better than that kid Williams, who seemed to think he was Indiana Jones. What the hell kind of name was Mutt anyway? That was the kind of name you gave to a dog.

Rodney showered as soon as he was back in his quarters, pulled on clean clothes and headed for the mess hall. His blood sugar was low. He’d participated in some rigorous physical exertion, after all -

No. He couldn’t think of it. Didn’t dare think of it. He went through the chow line, concentrating on the servers and their hands so he wouldn’t think of John’s hands on his skin, Evan’s mouth on his cock, wouldn’t think -

There was no point in thinking about it. It was one of those stress-flings that Rodney heard about. We almost died. Let’s have life-affirming sex. Evan had been on the Super-Hive with Rodney and the rest of the time while John was supposed to be on Earth using The Chair (what the hell were they going to do without The Chair?). For once Evan knew exactly what John and his team had gone through.

Of course Evan had been worried about John. He and John were lovers, were together, were -

Taking pity on Rodney. Ever since Rodney had told Evan about how he felt, and Evan had almost stepped aside for him, Evan had to have been thinking about it. Rodney would admit, however grudgingly, that Evan was a decent guy. Was generally nice. Gave Rodney brownies, sometimes, even when he didn’t have to. And Rodney didn’t think it was just Evan being nice because Rodney was John’s best friend.

Was Rodney John’s best friend? Or was that Evan? Rodney had been too blind to notice when they got together. Ronon the Barbarian hadn’t been surprised one bit. What else did they have between them that no one else shared?

Rodney ate mechanically. He needed to get his blood sugar up, have enough energy in him to power through the jobs he had ahead of him. He needed to get to his lab and check his laptop and the no doubt dozens of emails that required his attention.

And then John, fully dressed and freshly showered, stepped into the mess hall. Alone. He scooped up a tray and fell in beside Major Teldy, speaking to her, likely about military duties. He didn’t look like he’d spent the better part of last night bringing Rodney to orgasm with his hands and mouth and -

Evan stepped into the mess hall. From a different door. Also fully dressed and freshly showered. He didn’t even look at John, just grabbed a tray and fell into the chow line and started talking earnestly to a Marine about something. Didn’t even seem to notice John. But Rodney looked at him, at his dimples when he smiled, and remembered his sultry drawl while he was watching Rodney and John, encouraging them, telling them how good they looked together, how hot it was listening to them moan in pleasure -

He had to get out of there, stat. He started shoveling his food faster, but then he heard, “Later, Teldy,” and John was coming toward him, cafeteria tray in hand.

“Rodney,” he said, voice carefully measured.

They were in a public place. Rodney couldn’t make a scene. Didn’t dare make a scene. But he could leave.

“You didn’t even leave a note,” John said in a low voice. He sat down opposite Rodney and set down his tray.

“I have things I need to do, Sheppard. Gotta go.” Rodney set down his silverware and made to rise, but then Evan’s voice cut through the din.

“Hey, Colonel. Mind if I join you? Super-Hive Survivors Club and all.”

John lifted his head. “Major Lorne, I don’t mind at all. And neither does Rodney.”

How dare they, those bastards? Act all calm and cool like nothing happened, like they were just friendly colleagues. Like they hadn’t given him a taste of his deepest desire and then snatched it away.

Rodney stood up, snatched up his tray. “Like I said, I have things I need to do.” And he stomped away.

As predicted, he had dozens of emails waiting for him. He checked the ones labeled ‘urgent’ first, dismissed the ones that weren’t actually urgent, and typed responses to the truly urgent ones before opening his job queue.

Shield capacity was down. Time to fix it. It would keep Earth’s non-SGC forces from knowing they were there, and keep prying civilians away as well. Rodney straightened up from where he’d been bent over his workbench. “Radek!”

“What, Rodney?” Radek was bent over his own laptop, typing madly.

“Where are we on the shields?”

“Waiting for more naquadah generators, and trying to get General Landry to give us a ZPM.”

“Some of the shield output relays are damaged, were damaged when Carson had the city bouncing on the atmosphere.”

“I saw that.”

“We need to fix them.”

“We?” Radek paused and lifted his head.

“To maintenance levels, Radek. Now.”

Radek grabbed his favorite toolbox, shut his laptop, scooped up his datapad, and he and Rodney headed for the nearest transporter.

“I did not see you in all the celebrations,” Radek said.

“I was sleeping. Running around a Super-Hive while the countdown is ticking on a nuke makes a man a bit tired,” Rodney said.

“You should have had at least a little fun.”

“You sound like my - wait, no, my mother never gave a damn if I had fun.” Rodney tapped the coordinates for the maintenance levels. “For me, sleep was fun. Sleep was better than anything else I could have done.”

He could imagine, though, all the fun to be had with John or Evan or both at the same time.

He pushed the thought aside. He had work to do.

Work was perfect, for several hours. Rodney and Radek did the best they could to repair the shield output relays from where they’d taken some burn damage. They answered emails to take breaks, and they checked their job queues. They paused for some more food, and then they headed back to the lab to discuss the naquadah super-generator concept they’d been toying around with for ages. Even if they couldn’t send Atlantis the city herself back to Pegasus, surely there was no question of sending soldiers and supplies back to help the galaxy in the war against the Wraith.

Though there was the question of Todd.

They could set up on the Athosian mainland with some shield generators till the city was back. Teyla would help with that. They could send jumpers along as well to aid in missions.

Radek muttered something about a coffee break, and Rodney, deep in his own ruminations and calculations, barely noticed him leave.

He noticed when the lab door hissed open again however long after the departure. “Come look at this configuration for five generators.”

“Bit above my paygrade, Doc.”

Rodney turned.

Evan was standing just inside the door. It was closed behind him and, Rodney suspected, locked. Damn Evan and his almost super-gene.

“What are you doing here?”

“John wants to talk to you. I said to give you some time, some space, but it’s been hours, and John isn’t always known for his patience, so we compromised.”

“John wants to talk to me,” Rodney echoed. “You don’t.”

“I thought the delivery of my message was pretty clear, but if you need additional clarification, I’d be happy to oblige.” Evan’s tone was perfectly casual and friendly, but Rodney couldn’t help staring at his mouth. How had he never noticed Evan’s mouth before? Probably because he’d never had those lips wrapped around his dick before.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Rodney said. “I get it. It was a one-time thing. One of your post-battle mutual reassurances. I shared in the battle, so I shared in the reassurance, but it won’t happen again.”

“No, I don’t think you do get it.” Evan stepped closer.

“What am I not getting?” Rodney demanded.

Evan crossed the lab in a few quick strides, crowded up into Rodney’s personal space. Rodney was instantly flooded with the familiar heat of him, the scent of him. His body remembered how good Evan Lorne was.

“It doesn’t have to be a one-time thing,” Evan said, and kissed him. The kiss was soft and slow, gentle and thorough. Evan’s hands cupped around Rodney’s face were careful, like he was afraid Rodney would shatter into a million pieces with one wrong move.

Rodney was already shattered. He kissed back, desperate to taste John on Evan’s lips, but Evan flicked his tongue against Rodney’s and Rodney’s body remembered Evan on his knees, his tongue fluttering against the underside of Rodney’s cock, and Rodney was embarrassingly hard all over again.

He shoved Evan away. “No. Stop. I don’t want your fucking pity.”

Evan looked - hurt. Why? He wasn’t the one who’d fallen in love with his best friend and had to watch said best friend love someone else for years and years on end.

“It’s not pity.”

There was only so much Rodney could take. “Get out.”

“Rodney, please -”

“I said _get out!_ ”

Evan turned and unlocked the lab door with a swipe of his hand.

Radek was standing there with a steaming mug of coffee and a little plate of brownies. He looked amused as Evan swept past, his expression soldier-unreadable.

“What did the silly soldier do now?” Radek held out the plate of brownies.

Rodney accepted one without hesitation. “He was a soldier, like the rest. Here - check out this five-generator configuration.” He held out his datapad. “I think if we wire it just so and have enough transformers here and here, it could power the city’s main life support systems while the ZPMs get us back to Pegasus.”

Radek sipped his coffee, stared. “I’d put that transformer here.” He set down the plate of brownies and prodded the datapad’s screen, and it was back to work, back to not thinking about John and Evan for a few hours.

When John tried to approach Rodney at dinner in the mess hall, Rodney stood up and walked out, tray and all. He was fucking pissed at John, and he didn't want to see him. At all.

Over the next few days, John and Evan figured out pretty fast that Rodney was avoiding them when he left a room as soon as they entered it, and they weren’t complete idiots, so they stopped trying to corner him to talk.

As it turned out, the entire IOA was complete idiots. They wanted to keep Atlantis on Earth to defend it from another Wraith attack now that The Chair was gone. Woolsey and John had to fly to Washington to shout at the IOA about how stupid their idea was, and Evan was left in charge. Of the entire base.

So Rodney worked doubly hard to avoid him. Which was getting harder as the population of Atlantis suddenly shrunk by almost its entire military contingent.

Rodney and Radek were practically sleeping in the lab while they worked on the super-generator problem and also trying to turn Sam Carter’s research on Merlin’s device into a viable defense against the Wraith. They couldn't cull a planet that was out of phase, after all.

“But how long could the planet remain out of phase before we experience negative side effects?” Radek asked.

Rodney sighed. “I need more food to keep my brain working.”

“Food break,” Radek agreed.

The mess hall was almost completely empty. In fact, there wasn’t even a chow crew, just cold items left out on a long table, buffet style.

Rodney stared. “Where is everyone?”

Radek raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t you hear? Major Lorne sent all non-essential personnel on leave. We have one platoon of Marines for security and cooking, one platoon of combat engineers for maintenance, and the engineers and electricians. Since no one is going off world, everyone else was sent home. The engineers are overseeing the greenhouses while the botanists are gone. Did you not get the memo?”

“Everything is marked ‘urgent’ these days. I ignore it if it’s not actually urgent.”

“True.” Radek hummed thoughtfully, then began picking through the deli meat to make himself a sandwich.

Rodney was pretty sure everything available was citrus-free at this point, but to be safe he picked dry foods in the off-chance anything might have lemon juice on it. He and Radek were about to head back to the lab when Evan strode into the mess hall.

He glanced at Rodney - calm acknowledgment - and nodded at Radek, then scooped up a plate and set about fixing himself some food.

Radek glanced at Rodney, too. “Well?” he asked.

“Well, what?”

“Aren’t you going to go running out of here like Major Lorne has the plague? You’ve been doing that for days now.”

“No need to run,” Rodney said, loud enough for Evan to hear. “He knows not to follow.”

He saw Evan’s shoulders tighten, but Evan didn’t otherwise acknowledge the comment, just kept picking through the sandwich fixings with his careful, graceful hands. Rodney knew just what those hands were capable of.

He turned and swept out of the mess hall, and Radek followed.

For the next few days, it was like Evan was everywhere Rodney had to be whenever he ventured out of the lab. He was in Control, relaying a message to Woolsey when Rodney arrived to receive a message from Sam Carter about his and Radek’s super generator designs. He was at the Archivist requisitioning art supplies when Rodney went to borrow the little communal electric keyboard. He was in the mess hall getting food when Rodney was getting food, or even behind the chow line, guiding the Marines who served dinner - for dinner was always a group affair, even on a skeleton crew.

Evan was out running when Rodney needed to take a walk to clear his head - came speeding past wearing shorts and sneakers and no shirt and glistening with sweat, muscles sleek, skin golden.

Evan was lifting weights in the gym when Rodney had a question for one of the combat engineers who liked to have at a punching bag when she needed to think.

Rodney was sure Evan was stalking him, but there was no way he could confront Evan about it, because that would mean talking to him, and Rodney didn’t want to talk to him.

And then Woolsey and John returned with news: as soon as there was a viable defense system in place, Atlantis would be cleared to return to the Pegasus Galaxy. What scientists had survived Area 51 were being sent over to help deal with the power generation issue and the question of Merlin’s device.

Evan received this news with aplomb, ramped up preparations to make way for an influx of new science staff. He asked John for permission to recall another platoon of Marines. What better time to explore Atlantis than now, while they were relatively safe on Earth? If they were going to accommodate additional personnel, they should look at expanding the habitable living area.

Rodney, standing in Control and staring at the pile of personnel files Woolsey had given him, did his best not to stare at John, whose face he’d missed fiercely, despite his burning fury whenever he thought of how selfish John had been, letting Rodney into his bed like that.

John very carefully didn’t look at Rodney.

Teyla and Ronon had been given leave to, well, have a look at Earth. Keller had been more than willing to take them to visit her family and go sight-seeing. There was no way Rodney could have gotten away with his freeze-out of John and Evan with Teyla and Ronon around. Teyla would have noticed, and she would have recruited Ronon into helping her fix it. As it was, Teyla was starting to sound suspicious about Rodney’s declarations that he was fine during their brief phone calls every other day.

So Rodney was utterly shocked when it was Radek who betrayed him.

“Come down to the lab. I have a four-generator configuration that would give us twice the power output of the five-generator configuration we have been using,” Radek said over the radio, and so Rodney heaved himself out of bed and pulled on clothes and hurried to the lab.

John and Evan were sitting beside one of the benches, hands extended over and Ancient device, while Radek said, “Try thinking at it - from the left, if you know what I mean.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Evan said dryly.

The device did nothing.

“Radek,” Rodney began, warningly.

“Ah, Rodney, excellent timing! See if all three of you can initialize this. I will go pull up the specs for the new configuration.” Radek bustled back over to his own work bench.

Rodney, frowning, approached John and Evan warily, extended his hand. “What is it we’re trying to initialize?”

John shrugged. “Zelenka said he needed the two strongest gene carriers on hand. Apparently we’re not good enough. So, try to think it on.”

Rodney sighed and tried to find that place in the back of his mind that buzzed when he needed to use Ancient tech.

Then he heard the hiss of the door and saw Radek sprinting out.

“What the hell?” Rodney turned to follow him, but the door wouldn’t open.

The intercom clicked on.

“I have disabled the door mechanism,” Radek said, voice tinny. “You will be let out once you have stopped acting like teenage girls who all wore the same dress to the same party.”

“Teenage girls!” Rodney spluttered.

John was on his feet and across the lab in seemingly an instant. He swiped his hand over the door lock, but the door didn’t budge.

“Atlantis can’t reroute power to it because he took out the necessary crystal,” John said, after thinking hard for a long moment.

“Of course we’re in the lab with only one door.” Rodney threw his hands up.

“Sir,” Evan said, “should I radio for some of the Marines to arrest Radek and have another engineer repair the door?”

“Yes,” Rodney said, but John said, “No.”

Evan’s gaze turned shuttered. “He’s made it clear that he doesn’t want to talk, that he’s not interested in being with us like that. We should respect his feelings.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Evan,” Rodney said.

John crossed his arms over his chest. “Rodney, you don’t even know what we want.”

“You wanted a fun one-time fuck, and now I’m stuck with the memory of what I’ll never get to have again,” Rodney snapped. “I get it. It’s all screwed up. You thought I was straight and then Evan and his fantastic ass came along, and you’re both soldiers, and there are parts of you I’ll never understand, despite five years on a front-line gate team. See? _I get it._ ”

“I’ve known Evan since I was sixteen,” John said.

Rodney blinked.

“Why do you look so surprised?” Evan asked. “I figured you already knew.”

John cast Evan a sharp look. “Why would he know about that?”

“When I went to rescue you from that ridiculous Coalition tribunal, Rodney asked if I’d had to systematically dismantle any human bodies to effectuate the rescue,” Evan said, his voice curiously flat.

Rodney swallowed hard. He’d overheard them talking that one time, after John’s father’s funeral. They probably thought no one knew how to find them when they didn’t want to be found. It was probably why they’d carried on their career-wrecking affair for as long as they had, supreme in their confidence as the two strongest gene-carriers on the expedition, besides Beckett.

John went pale, and he looked - afraid. “How -?”

“While you were Earthside for your father’s funeral, I was a little - out of sorts,” Evan admitted. “And some of the base supply lines got a little crossed. The lab ran out of coffee, and to hear some of the others tell it, Rodney went on quite the crusade to restore the lab’s coffee supply. You came to speak to me in the kitchen while I was fixing up those moon cakes for Marie. And you had questions about my time with my cousins in Boston. Rodney must have overheard at least part of that conversation.”

Rodney remembered that conversation. Evan had mentioned that the last time he’d seen John’s younger brother, the man had been twelve.

“Rodney, what do you know?” John’s tone was grave.

“He’s the smartest man in two galaxies,” Evan said quietly. “Assume he knows everything. What he little he knows is probably too much.”

John cut him another sharp look, and Evan shrugged. “Old habits die hard.”

“I know - know that Evan ran away from home, changed his name, and then went to the Academy.” Rodney searched his memory. “I don’t remember much more than that.” He eyed Evan. “You promised you wouldn’t tell John how I felt about him.”

“I didn’t have to.” Evan sighed. “When you were losing your memory, because of the Second Childhood, you flirted with Keller, yes, but when things were at their worst, the person you wanted was John.”

“So I never stood a chance.” Rodney looked at John. “Even if I had been upfront about my bisexuality, you two were high school sweethearts or something ridiculous. You two saw each other, and -”

“There was nothing sweet about what we were when we were sixteen,” John said. He took a deep breath. “I suppose it’s time I told you, and Teyla too. Ronon already knows, because he accompanied me for the funeral, but -”

Evan rose up. “I should go. This is between the two of you. And besides, my story is mine to tell, but Rodney has made it perfectly clear how he feels about me, so - I can draw up a schedule, or something. So we never interfere with each other’s time with you.”

“What the hell?” Rodney demanded. “This is - John’s no baby to be split, and as scary as your organizing and logistics skills are, you’re no Solomon! And I’m not the kind of desperate - desperate teenage girl who’ll settle for being the other woman or whatever while you’re the longsuffering mistress of the house.”

“John loves you,” Evan said evenly, “and he loves me. No one said we had to love each other. You’ve made it abundantly clear you don’t even like me. There’s a simple way to handle this. So let’s be adults and handle it.”

John threw his hands up. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

“The day what?” Rodney snapped.

“The day I was the least emotionally retarded person in the room,” John said. “Evan, I love you, and I’m not going to stomp all over your heart by spending half of my free time with Rodney. Rodney, I love you too. You’re my best friend. But I’m with Evan, and Evan means a great deal to me, and as much as I do love you, Evan and I have a shared past that connects us deeply, in a way not even our fellow soldiers could comprehend. We’re willing to let you in, but we’re a package deal.”

Rodney stared at him. “You said - you said what you feel for Evan doesn’t encroach on what you feel for me, and vice versa.”

“That still holds,” John said, “if you want to stay my best friend and only my best friend.”

“How do you expect me to want to stay only your best friend after we had sex?” Rodney demanded. “Now that I know what that feels like, how do you expect things to stay the same?”

“I was hoping they wouldn’t.” John caught Rodney’s gaze and held it. “I was hoping you’d want something more. We tried to offer you more, and you pushed us away.”

Evan said, “He doesn’t want us. He wants _you._ ”

“I don’t think he knows what he wants,” John said, “because he doesn’t know everything.”

“Once he knows everything, he’ll still only want you. He thinks I’m a monster, and maybe you’re a bit of a monster for not thinking the same of me.” Evan started for the door.

John caught his wrist. “You’re not a monster.”

Evan said something too low for Rodney to make out. John’s response was - not in English. Rodney blinked. Since when did John speak another language? It wasn’t uncommon for soldiers posted overseas to pick up the local language here and there, but that wasn’t a language Rodney had ever heard before. He was no linguist, but -

Evan shook his head, smiling sadly, and leaned in, kissed John on both cheeks. Something about the gesture was ritualistic.

Then Evan pressed a kiss to John’s forehead and said, “Slan, Baby John. This is Bluebell, signing out.”

And John looked stricken. He released Evan’s wrist, and Evan reached for his radio.

“Radek, let me out. My part here is done.”

Rodney reached for his radio. “No, we’re not done.”

“Then I am not unlocking the door,” Radek said.

Rodney took off his radio and set it aside. “Both of you need to stop assuming you know what I know and how I feel and what I want or will want. If we’re going to do this like adults, we need to listen to each other. So here’s what I want, for now: a relationship with John, a deeper one than the one we already have. Here’s what I know: not a whole lot. I don’t know what to do with you, Evan. So tell me what it is you two have been hiding between you, and I’ll decide what it is I want for the future.”

“Congratulations,” Evan said to John, “you’re officially the most emotionally retarded person in the room again.”

“Says the man who was going to walk out of here.” But John looked unfairly relieved when Evan resumed his seat beside the workbench. “All right, Rodney. Here’s what you need to know about me and Evan.”

And John proceeded to unfold a tale that was beyond belief. Crime families. Protection money. Shakedowns. Running weapons. Running drugs. Prostitution. Funding terrorism back in Ireland. John sounded so - clinical. Detached as he described growing up with unbelievable wealth and privilege, all of which descended from a throne of blood. And then Evan joined in, sounding just as flat and dispassionate, and talked about stealing cars, getting into fights, counterfeiting money, forging passports and travel documents, and eventually running his own crew of car thieves.

“I can boost anything,” Evan said. “Well, anything made before 1986. Haven’t jacked a car since I was sixteen. You ever seen _Gone in Sixty Seconds_? My crew was that good. I was that good.”

They talked about wanting to get out, seeing that mutual desire in each other during an ill-fated meeting at a mafia-owned bar in Boston.

And so they got out, each of them, on their own, and somehow they ended up here. On Atlantis. Side-by-side.

Rodney blinked at them. “So, what, the two of you were just waiting for your reunion all this time? Pining for each other.”

Evan laughed, startled. “Ah, no. I was far from celibate for two decades, Doc. We had a hell of a time in the back of John’s car when we were sixteen, but most of that fun was possible because of teenage hormones. I’ve improved my technique since then. Practice makes perfect.”

“I was married,” John said. “It didn’t last, though. She was one of the county prosecutors in Boston, and being part of my family, even if I was estranged from them - I might as well have painted a target on her back.”

“Married?” Evan and Rodney asked at the same time. They looked at each other warily.

“And divorced.” John scrubbed a hand over his face.

Rodney’s head was spinning. “So all this time, you two have - what, been heroically flinging yourself into danger all over two galaxies to try to make up for the fact that you were raised horribly?”

“Well, when you put it like that,” Evan began, but Rodney plowed ahead.

“I was also raised horribly. Maybe not the same way as you, but - I know it’s not my job to spend every breath atoning for the mistakes I made as a kid and the mistakes my parents made. If I learned from them and moved on and didn’t repeat them, that’s atonement enough.” He eyed Evan. “Although if the way you run the sub-rosa economy on Atlantis and possibly the greater Pegasus Galaxy is any indication -”

“Old habits die hard,” Evan said softly.

“That’s it, though. That’s your big secret?” Rodney eyed both of them.

They nodded.

Rodney focused his attention on Evan. “Do you even like me?”

“Not at all,” Evan said flatly. “That’s why I save you brownies and make sure the lab always gets its coffee delivery first.”

“Now isn’t the time for sarcasm,” Rodney snapped. “I want a real answer.”

Evan reached out and snagged Rodney’s sleeve, tugged him close. He threaded his fingers through Rodney’s hair and leaned in. Kissed him. Slow and gentle and soft and very, very tender.

“Is that answer enough?” Evan asked when he pulled back.

“But - why?” Rodney blinked, a little overwhelmed by the emotion behind that kiss.

“How could I not care for someone who loves John at least as much as I do?”

“What if I don’t like you back?” Rodney blurted out, and immediately winced.

“You don’t have to like me to let me make you feel good,” Evan said, and Rodney recognized the heat in his gaze.

He pulled back slowly. “Right. I just - can I have time to think it over?”

“Take all the time you need,” John said. “We’ll be ready when you are, whatever you decide.”

Rodney inhaled shakily. “Thanks.” He tapped his radio. “Radek, you can let us out now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” John said, and Evan added his affirmation.

It took all of two minutes, and then the door hissed open. Evan and John swept out of the lab, leaving Rodney to stare down at the workbench.

“Well? Are you done being stupid?” Radek asked.

Rodney nodded, not even bothering to deny the accusation.

“Good, because I really do need you to look over this four-generator configuration.” Radek held out his datapad.

Rodney snatched it from him and poked through the schematics. “Where are the yield calculations?”

Radek jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the whiteboard behind him.

“Huh. How did I miss those?”

“It was an important conversation, no?”

Rodney cast him a sharp look. “Don’t think I won’t remember this. Now give me a pen. This is one of your less-stupid ideas, but there was a reason we went with five generators for a reason. See here…”

Rodney caught John after dinner, when he was leaving the mess hall. He towed John down a side corridor, made sure they were alone, leaned up, and kissed him.

“Rodney?” John asked, wonder dawning in his eyes.

Rodney said, “Yes.”


End file.
